Day 42: Alternative Fuels
Algae Fuels: The Aquatic Species Program, Bio Willie, Freedom Fuels, Robert Newman’s History of Oil, An Inconvenient Truth
Welcome to Day 42!
Is a person who eats an energy-saving, sustainable, body-cleansing plant-centered diet more likely to understand and support a plant-centered, sustainable, earth-cleansing renewable energy source for vehicles such as vegetable oil?
It is our contention that as we recognize the need fulfilled by a plant-centered diet for the healing of our society at multiple levels, that we will be more highly inclined to seek plant- and sun-based solutions to our external energy problems, such as fueling our automobiles.
As you may know, we drive a Ford F-350 on waste vegetable oil – garbage – that we pick up for free at Asian restaurants. To date we have driven this truck over 65,000 miles on vegetable oil (a distance of 2 times around the earth) with great success and no hiccups. Why are we not doing this on a larger scale? To the right is an interview David did in the summer of 2005, when California gas prices were over $5.00/gallon.
Also check out our Epic raw food/vegetable oil video at right that we filmed in Bakersfield, California. On that trip, we drove 2,300 miles without seeing a gas station or vegetable oil stop, then filled up with free oil and drove back to Arizona for a 3,000 mile trip all on vegetable-based fuels.
DOWNLOADS TODAY
In the download on Vegetable-Based Fuels, you will read about our impending oil crisis, and learn about the most intelligent, resourceful, and immediately applicable short- and long-term solution to our energy needs: growing algae to make vegetable oil using technology and infrastructure all of which is known, and some of which is already in existence, such as our cars and nation-wide gas stations.
The Aquatic Species Program
The U.S. Government ran this program for over 20 years for over $25 million dollars. The program found over 150 varieties of algae that could be grown to harvest for fuel. Algae is smarter for the purpose of growing vegetable oil because unlike corn or soy, algae is harvested every day, 365 days a year, does not require arable land, and can be grown in brackish-salt water.
Enjoy reading this file. This is further exciting evidence that we have more problems than we deserve, and more solutions than we apply. Never again will you be at a loss for what we can do to truly solve our political and geological oil crisis.
FILMS AND VIDEOS
Video: Freedom Fuels
Learn about the history of the diesel engine and vegetable based fuels – technology that is over 100 years old.
Video: Robert Newman’s History of Oil
Also today, an excellent comedic – but accurate – look at the oil industry and its history with comedian Robert Newman. Newman gets to grips with the wars and politics of the last hundred years – but rather than adhering to the history we were fed at school, the places oil centre stage as the cause of all commotion. This innovative history programme is based around Robert Newman’s stand-up act and supported by resourceful archive sequences and stills with satirical impersonations of historical figures from Mayan priests to Archduke Ferdinand. Quirky details such as a bicycle powered street lamp on the stage brings home the pertinent question of just how we are going to survive when the world’s oil supplies are finally exhausted.
Film: Crude Impact
Click the video at right to watch the entire film .
Film: A Crude Awakening
Documentary: Gasland
Today’s Downloads
Online Articles
Global switch to biofuels could spike food prices and harm the environment by David Gutierrez
A worldwide spike in biofuels production could do more harm than good if managed improperly, according to a report released by UN-Energy, an interagency body of the United Nations devoted to developing plans for sustainable energy systems, particularly in Third World countries. The report, “Sustainable Bioenergy: A Framework for Decision Makers,” concludes that biofuels can be beneficial if planned well, but that in the absence of good planning they may lead to serious health, environmental and economic consequences.
The Biofuels Scam, Food Shortages and the Coming Collapse of the Human Population by Mike Adams
It was one of the dumbest “green” ideas ever proposed: Convert millions of acres of cropland into fields for growing ethanol from corn, then burn fossil fuels to harvest the ethanol, expending more energy to extract the fuel than you get from the fuel itself! Meanwhile, sit back and proclaim you’ve achieved a monumental green victory (President Bush, anyone?) all while unleashing a dangerous spike in global food prices that’s causing a ripple effect of food shortages and rationing around the world.
Understanding the Transition From Seed Corn to Biofuels by Jo Hartley
We are about to witness and experience the greatest sustained rise in grain prices seen in the last 30 years. This rise will include wheat, rice, and maize; these three comprising over 90% of all grains cultivated on the planet. Let’s do some digging to figure out what is causing this sharp increase. The Bush Administration’s “20 in 10” program is at the root of the problem. The plan is to cut US gas consumption by 20% by the year 2010. The official PR (Public Relations) tells us that this will reduce US dependency on foreign oil producers and will reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Both of these claims are false.
Biofuels worse for the environment than fossil fuels, study warns by David Gutierrez
Far from being a solution to the global ecological crisis induced by fossil fuels, biofuels may “offer a cure that is worse than the disease they seek to cure,” a report by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has concluded.”When acidification, fertilizer use, biodiversity loss and toxicity of agricultural pesticides are taken into account, the overall environmental impacts of ethanol and biodiesel can very easily exceed those of petrol and mineral diesel,” the report read.